bossing people around in italian (the imperative)

The imperative (not to be confused with the infinitive) is the form of the verb used to give commands or make strong requests. English has imperatives too. Compare:

You are nice. (present indicative)

Be nice. (imperative)

So basically you take the same verbs we’ve been working with all along and change their form slightly to indicate that the action in question is one you’re commanding someone to do, not one someone is actually performing.

Here is the formation in Italian:

	parlare	prendere	sentire	finire
tu	parla	prendi	senti	finisci
Lei	parli	prenda	senta	finsca
noi	parliamo	prendiamo	sentiamo	finiamo
voi	parlate	prendete	sentite	finite

Notice the noi and voi command forms are identical to the regular present tense ones you’ve learned already. So are the tu forms for all but the –are verbs.

There are no io, lui/lei or loro forms, since you can’t command yourself or people you are referring to rather than directly addressing.

Notice that for the –are verbs, the tu and Lei forms are the reverse of their regular present tense equivalents.

The noi form imperative of any verb is also the equivalent of the English “Let’s” + verb.

To make a negative command (don’t do something), simply put non before the imperative. Tu is the exception. Here use non + infinitive.

You don’t normally use subject pronouns with the imperative.

Some examples:

Paolino, parla piu’ lentamente!

Signora, parli piu’ lentamente per favore.

Ragazzi, non mangiate troppo.

Domenico, non mangiare troppo..

Irregular Imperatives

essere	avere	dire	fare	andare	stare	dare
sii	abbi	di’	fa’	va’	sta’	da’
sia	abbia	dica	faccia	vada	stia	dia
siamo	abbiamo	diciamo	facciamo	andiamo	stiamo	diamo
siate	abbiate	dite	fate	andate	state	date

Comments

[dude]

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